Cultsha.....

This is a new model for Henry Moore.  Years ago I went on one of Robert's business trips with him to Toronto.  Froze, but found a museum that was packed with Henry Moore sculpture - so much so that it was hard to move between them.  It was more of a store house than a museum, on  a second floor which had to have been reinforced to take the heavy weight.  At the Norton Simon, the sculptures are all over in a garden and inside the building, in such a way that they appear to have always been there.  The paintings were astonishing for a collection that had been built over 30 years - dating from the 1300s to the 1990s:  names and images that are famous and fantastic.  We were in awe - and were able to get our noses right close  to the work.  Photos were allowed, also - without flash - we loved the place.  We had been to an exhibit of Diebenkorn at the Orange Country Museum and the guards kept telling us to keep three feet away from the work.  Back away from the work, lady! Of course some of the precious stuff had barriers but we were able to breathe in the colors and sense of the work.  Awe doesn't cover our feelings - it was almost religious in there.
As an aside, the brochure said the museum was remodelled in the 1990s by Frank Gehry.....couldn't tell at all.  He must, with his giant ego, have sublimated something to make the whole place magic and serene.  And then we had to hit the traffic on the freeway to come home but were high on the experience until Lincoln Blvd.

Monet's work is so famed for the water lilies that this garden was another fascination spot in the museum.  People would get so close and then just stand there.  I did, too...this isn't one that is seen very often and is joyous in color, but painted in a time when he had all sorts of life changing events that were not positive.  I tried to talk to Robert about why shadows are blue, why concrete is pink and got nowhere.  He looked at a painting by Ingres, and said "this is real art."  Humph. 

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My new bff. People were enthralled with this guy - called simply, A Peasant. Me, too.  The color is so vivid that it glows in a room with limited light.  Not one that is found very often in books about the artist.
I have been in the major museums in Washington DC, but was not as excited and thrilled as I was yesterday at the Norton Simon.  The Art Institute in Chicago is another emotional art experience with all their Monet's....but the entire setting of the NS, with the beautiful garden and exhibit galleries is pretty hard to beat. I may just like this area, after all.